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 Reflections on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide  [Q and A on Euthanasia]    -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for Life 1. Do we have a "right to die?"When people ask me about the "right to die," I respond, "Don't worry -- you won't miss out on it!" A right is a moral claim. We do not have a claim on death; rather, death has a claim on us! Some see the "right to die" as parallel to the "right to life." In fact, however, they are opposite. The "right to life" is based on the fact that life is a...

Ironically, if Terri Schiavo's feeding tube had been reinserted and she had been allowed to live on, it would have done very little damage to the purported "right to die." It would have set no precedent for cases in which a patient has left written instructions, in which a patient's heart is unable to beat or lungs are unable to breathe without the aid of a machine, in which a patient was already suffering a terminal illness, or in which a patient's closest family members are united as to what the patient wanted. What made Terri's case stand out was...

A better way than a gun? Had he lived in Oregon, the terminally ill man who shot himself in the head at Oak Glen Home in Coal Valley last month wouldn't have needed the gun. There would have been no need for someone to put himself or herself at risk of criminal charges by slipping him the weapon. There would have been no possibility that other residents would be harmed by the bullet after it exited his head. There would have been no trauma for the nursing home staff. Instead, he could simply have asked that he be prescribed a...

S.A. hospital won't cut off man's life support Web Posted: 04/30/2005 12:07 AM CDT Nicole Foy - Express-News Medical Writer An agreement was reached Friday that ended a standoff between the family of an East Texas man and a local hospital that planned to remove him from life support. Spiro Nikolouzos, critically ill and in a persistent vegetative state, will be returned to Avalon Place, a long-term care facility that came to his aid after a Houston hospital also decided to end life support. Nikolouzos was transferred from Avalon to Southeast Baptist Hospital at the end of March after he...

San Antonio hospital set to remove man from life support 04/28/2005 Associated Press A man in a persistent vegetative state whose family battled with a Houston hospital to stop his removal from life support is set to be removed from support Tuesday at a San Antonio hospital, his family said. The family of Spiro Nikolouzos, 68, has vowed to keep him on life support and is trying to get him moved back to the nursing home where he was sent after leaving the Houston hospital. A nursing home official said Thursday they would take him back. "I'm not going to...

-snip- A St. Cloud area man who suffered a brain injury in an April 8 altercation at a St. Cloud nightclub died Tuesday afternoon, more than a week after he was removed from life support. Justin W. Smiley, 28, of Sauk Rapids, died about 1 p.m. at the St. Cloud Hospital, his aunt, Pam Heldt, said Tuesday. "We're feeling a lot of relief right now that he's finally at peace," Heldt said. -snip- Janelle Kendall, the Stearns County Attorney, said an autopsy is scheduled for today. She said her office is awaiting the results of the autopsy before making a...

LONDON - Rejecting a bid by the parents, a British judge on Thursday upheld a court order allowing doctors to let a critically ill baby die if she stops breathing — a move doctors say is the only humane way to end the child's suffering.

Clearwater, FL - The volunteers with the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation were astonished to learn of the behavior of former Dunedin, Florida Attorney Constance d'Angelis. d'Angelis is the former wife of George Felos, legal representative to Michael Schiavo. In a press release issued through PR Web, titled "Lawyer Who Presented CT Scan & Medical Evidence in Court Analyzes Autopsy Results in Terri Schiavo Case" Ms. d'Angelis claims she will be available to interpret the anticipated Medical Examiner's report on the late Terri Schiavo. Quoted from her release: "Upon the release of the autopsy report, she can analyze the results and weigh...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A legislative committee Tuesday approved a measure modeled after an Oregon law that would allow the terminally ill to end their lives with a doctor's assistance. The bill cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee after more than a dozen hours of testimony and debate spread over three hearings. It now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, and finally to the floor. The Senate would then have to take up the legislation. Supporters said the measure would give people with no more than six months to live the choice to end their lives with a self-administered drug prescribed...

“.... the real news is that there are hundreds and thousands of angels of death in our nation, working quietly “underground,” so to speak, and physicians and nurses know this is going on. The news is that many patients who are not actively dying are being killed, not cared for, in hospice agencies.” (Courtesy of The Hospice Patient Alliance, a hospice watchdog group) She was born with CP…needed lots of care and special treatment. G-tube, Trach, central line, PIC lines, IV, non ambulatory, needed body casts just to hold her trunk up as she had no ribs…typical for a disabled...

To: Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 4:01 PM Subject: NewStarvingCaseinGeorgia.PressRelease.Mullinax(205)408-7598 Media Release For Immediate release! To: All media, and supporters of life. From: The Family of Mae Magouirk Date: April 6, 2005 Contact: Kenneth Mullinax Shiavo case revisited in Georgia Mae Magouirk…not comatose …not vegetative …not terminal Why is Hospice LaGrange, Ga. withholding nourishment? (LaGrange, Georgia) Mae Magouirk is being withheld nourishment and fluids and the provisions of her Living Will are not being honored at the Hospice-LaGrange, (1510 Vernon Street, LaGrange “Troup County” Georgia, 706-845-3905) a subsidiary of the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange Georgia. Her family is desperately seeking...

Terri Schiavo Judges Won't be Targeted, Senate Leader Frist Says by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told reporters on Tuesday that he's not interested in having the Senate go after judges who violated a federal law Congress passed mandating that Terri Schiavo's starvation death be stopped and allowing her parents to take their lawsuit to federal courts. "I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today," he said, according to a Reuters report. Frist admitted the federal review of the case "was not as complete as we would like," but he...

Michael Schiavo's Insurance Company Contributed to "Death with Dignity" Bill Supporter CLEARWATER, Florida, April 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Jerger & Centonze Insurnace (sic) Agency, a company that lists its address as 2807 Marrie Court - Michael Schiavo's address - and has as a co-founder, Michael's girlfriend/fiancé Jody Centonze, was a contributor to the campaign of death-with-dignity bill champion Florida Senator Jim King. "Conflicts of interest among key players in the Terri Schiavo controversy could give the United Nations oil-for-food investigation a run for its money," wrote canadafreepress.com Editor Judi McLeod. "Campaign contributors to the political campaign of district 8...

Various creepy people on the Left have been torturing the English language lately to make their Death Culture more palatable to the general public, most of whom prefer to life. First with the Schiavo case, now with the Pope: they market death as if it were another lifestyle option. Selfish twerps, the public. Don't they know it's very expensive for them to go on living? Don't they know that seasides, wetlands, and highlands are much more scenic if you take away the people? Social Security would be just fine, if only the public would stop living. The Left's worst abuse...

We can all rest easy. Clearly the judges have everything under control, including who is worthy of a right to life finally. Now that they have successfully protected and preserved our right to die, we can rest assured that they will tend to all our other rights with equal vigor… It was close there for a while, some judges taking almost 24 hours to decide to defend our right to be starved and dehydrated to death once we have lost our usefulness to society. But in the end, they all stood tall, even in the face of enormous pressure from...

George Felos, perhaps trying to ease his guilt, (though this is unlikely since one must have a conscience to feel guilt) and improve his image as a heartless ogre, went before cameras and fed the world one of the biggest lies it has ever heard. He related how "peaceful and beautiful" Terri is as she lay dying. I guess if dying of dehydration and starvation is so lovely, perhaps we should all die that way. Perhaps we should give that option to criminals on death row. We certainly should stop being concerned about the children in poor countries dying of...

It was impossible to look without grief at the images of Terri Schiavo starving slowly to death in a Florida hospice. It has, alas, become impossible in America to look at such a tragic set of circumstances without hysteria. Those of us who have long worried that unleashing religious fundamentalism into the bloodstream of American politics would lead to disaster can feel only that our fears have now come true. Fifteen years ago Schiavo suffered a heart stoppage that was caused by her bulimia. Her brain was temporarily starved of oxygen and scans showed that her cerebral cortex had stopped...

So Why Are We So Focused on Terri’s Cerebral Cortex? Neurologists, ethicists and hospice specialists are parading across the news each day affirming that Terri Schiavo has so little cerebral cortex that she cannot possibly think, feel or act volitionally. Yet the debate over ending her life is centered NOT on any essentially cortical activity What the courts have decided is that because Terri Schiavo has lost the ability to initiate and reproduce this local, noncortical neurological reflex, her fate rests in the hands of Michael Schiavo. Can’t Pee? Stay Away From Florida’s Courts What the courts have done is...

Introduction Modern trends in health law have enormously increased personal choice and power over health care providers. This is especially true in terms of the right of a person to refuse treatment or to have treatment given only when conditioned on a written consent, e.g., judicial hearings for involuntary treatment with psychotropic drugs and ECT (electro-convulsive therapy), health proxy laws and living wills, surrogate decision making, reform of guardianship statutes, HIV/AIDS testing, etc. Perhaps the most celebrated judicial decision on this right was handed down by the United States Supreme Court in Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health.(1) This...

As I'm writing this post, Terri Schiavo is fighting a loosing battle for life in Florida hospice without crucial life support. The parents and their attorneys have exhausted all legal options to save Terri and only a miracle can prevent her demise. The 5th Ammendment of US Constitution guarantees that every person accused of crime should not be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law". Terri obviously is not guilty of any crime, but her life is being taken away without a due process of law as far as I'm concerned.